


Telling the truth

by Laura_Sinele



Series: Fictober 2019 drabbles [6]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Homophobic Language, Mild Language, Period-Typical Homophobia, Pre-Slash, because I haven't watched season 3 yet, sue me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 18:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21020063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laura_Sinele/pseuds/Laura_Sinele
Summary: Billy is looking for Maxine at the Byers. Steve finds him and decides to tell him the truth.





	Telling the truth

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fictober 19 prompt #10: "Listen, I can't explain, you'll have to trust me"
> 
> Can be read as a prequel for Trust me.

This is what made Billy change his mind. And it goes like this:

Shit was about to get down in the forest. El was missing. Max and Lucas were fighting over not including her in the Party’s game night —“After all we’ve been through, really, creep, I can’t believe you!”; “Don’t call me creep, I was trying to protect you!”. And Mike was yelling at everyone and everything because his not-a-girlfriend had disappeared and there was nothing more important than that. Will was kind of a zombie (no pun intended) because he was somehow connected to El’s brain and Jonathan and Nancy were carrying him around taking notes on everything he said to try and find her. For once, Dustin was the only one not freaking out or making things worse. 

And Steve, poor ol’ Steve, sweet mother hen Steve, was starting to have enough of people bossing him around, most of them way under his age. But apparently the Chief had decided that whatever the kids said went, and Mrs Byers was willing to do anything it took just to keep his little boy alive, obviously. So Steve was driving. All the time, all around town, with his trusted bat under his car seat. "Go pick this up, go fetch that thing" and so on. This time he was sent to the Byers for blankets. And oh, shit, was that Billy Hargrove’s car? And was that Billy knocking at the Byers door with all his teenage testosterone-powered rage? Steve was oh, so fucking lucky… The stitches from their fight had just come off last month.

Billy turned around, cigarette dangling between his lips, and began to walk towards Steve’s car holding up an accusing and menacing finger. Steve reached instinctively for the bat but decided against it in the last second. If Hardgrove didn’t kill him now, those demofuckers would, so whatever, he thought. 

“Harrington!”, yelled Billy, slapping the beemer’s hood. “Where the fuck is Maxine, you fucking perv?”. He grabbed a handful of Steve’s sweater and was ready to punch the answer out of him. Steve pushed him away and they both were confused for a minute with that development. When Billy went for him again Steve snapped:

“Stop it! Stop, stop right fucking now, Hargrove! Jesus Christ! Don’t you know how to have an actual conversation? Really? Because I can’t tell you shit if you knock my teeth off, you know?”.

Unexpectedly, Billy relaxed. He put the cig in his mouth again, crossed his arms over his chest and muttered: “Go on. I’m listening”.

Steve gaped, wide-eyed. He had expected to be shoved against the car or onto the ground, but not this. 

“O… okay. Okay. I’ll tell you where Max is. But you’re not gonna like it. But don’t hit me because is not my fucking fault, okay? And Mrs Byers, and Jonathan, and Nancy and Chief Hopper are with them, so they are safe. Relatively”. At that, Billy threw the cigarette on the ground and went for Steve again. “No, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t start it! Believe me, you can’t possibly be as fed up as I am with this bullshit, because you don’t know even the half of it. You haven’t seen half of the shit I’ve seen”. 

“Where. Is. Maxine. Harrington”, whispered Billy menacingly, barely an inch away of Steve’s ear. 

“In the forest. They should be near the ravine by now. I came back because the little Byers said we were going to need some blankets. They are looking for El and he’s got this weird telepathic connection with her. Oh, El is Hopper’s adoptive daughter and Max’s new best friend. She comes from the lab they sealed last year, they were using her to experiment because she’s got this superpowers, but they accidentally opened a portal to another dimension and shit got really weird.”

Billy shoved Steve against the car.

“Are you fucking with me, Harrington?”

“Ah… don’t feel bad, you’re pretty hot but I think I’m not ready to explore my sexuality in that direction.”

Billy punched Steve in the stomach and let him fall down. 

“Tell me when you’re done joking, faggot.”

Steve managed to fit laughter between his groans of pain.

“You’re a dickhead, Hargrove. No wonder Maxine would rather wander through the woods at night and face freaky otherworldly monsters than go back home to scum like you and your father.”

Billy crouched down and grabbed Steve by the collar, lifting him up until they were face to face. When he spoke, his voice sounded dangerously calm, but his face was a perfect impersonation of a time-bomb in its last five seconds countdown.

“The fuck you know about me, pretty boy? The fuck you know about my father? Now, you tell me the fucking truth or I’m gonna…”

“Okay! Okay, listen. Believe it or not, I’ve told you the truth as far as I know it. And if you don’t believe me, you can come with me. This is some supernatural shit. Look, I can’t explain, you’ll have to trust me”.

Billy scanned Steve’s face and seemed to decide that either Harrington was stupid enough to try to prank him, and then he’d kill him, or he was telling the truth, which in hindsight and against all common sense, seemed to fit in all the gibberish Max had been talking on his walkie with the freaks lately. Anyway, he decided to follow. And next thing you know this freaky flower-mawed creatures are raining on them, Harrington’s brandishing a bat with nails and Billy’s scraping his knuckles on alien flesh. What a fucking lovely night. 

And this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


End file.
